Sizewell C Examination concludes!

Sizewell C will be one of the largest and most complex infrastructure projects to be delivered in the UK. A nuclear power station proposed to be located on the Suffolk coast, the mega-project has just concluded its DCO Examination. Ardent have been instructed to conduct the land referencing process, producing the Land Plans and Book of Reference for the DCO application since 2018.  The application is predominantly for a Nuclear Power Station in Suffolk adjacent to the existing Sizewell B Station along with supporting infrastructure including; an accommodation campus, significant road and rail improvements, park & ride sites, freight sites and ecological mitigation / compensation areas.

Ardent have also negotiated survey licences to allow access to land to undertake non-intrusive and intrusive surveys, undertaken land owner engagement, co-ordinated surveys with the contractors undertaking the work and produced a property cost estimate for all of the scheme including the rail and road led strategies. The referencing team also supported the examination process along with undertaking changes to documents at multiple deadlines.

In addition our CMC team was appointed in 2020 by Laing O’Rourke, as the sole interface between the Civil Works Alliance and the EDF/Sizewell C Co, managing the technical dialogue and decision making between the engineering and construction delivery team, and the clients DCO team.

CMC has co-ordinated and led the civil works programme in its preparation and support in of the DCO examination, balancing the requirement between design development and robust defence of the application. CMC has fostered a project culture of collaboration and integration between a vast inter-disciplinary team to ensure a fully coordinated response to various challenges posed by the DCO consenting process. This role has included:

• Answering the most pre-examination questions ever raised on a DCO
• Coordination of a rapid response team of civils, marine, rail, operations and logistics leads with associated ‘speed’ governance.
• Strategic analysis of examination hearings upon future compliance and commitment requirements for construction

Fingers crossed for the right decision in 6 months time!